Epiphone Japan Les Paul Custom Elite Randy Rhoads 1998

This super clean and hard-to-find Les Paul Custom Elite with the Gibson USA-style headstock is from the Elite line of Epiphones from Japan in the late 90's. I am guessing it is a 1998, but it could go a year either way. Epiphone Japan made these Elite guitars for the home market, which shortly turned into the Elitist line without the notch in the top of the headstock (due to a trademark dispute with Ovation). Even though Epiphone Japan made these guitars to the same standards as Gibson USA, they could not use the Gibson name on the headstock inlay. One of the photos shows the Japanese with the American (note the identical truss rod covers). The late 1990's Custom Elite headstock inlays have held up better than the ones in my 2014 Les Paul Custom Lite headstock. The fit and finish are as good as the USA one, and you can see in the photos that it has a long neck tenon. The body weighs in at a solid 9.8 pounds. I put a piece of copier paper in two of the photos so you could more easily see the creamy yellow of the finish. I installed the unofficial Randy set of Seymour Duncan Jazz and Distortion humbuckers, which sound fantastic in this guitar. The rest of the electronics are original. I also replaced the pickup selector puck with a gold-plated one, and installed knob pointers and gold knobs to match Randy's LP, and gold Dunlop strap locks. All of the original parts are included in this listing in case you want to restore it to OG glory. The original pickups sound really good and if they had gold covers I might have left them in. This LP has the usual Gibson 24.75" scale. It is currently strung with .009 to .046 strings. The rosewood fretboard radius looks to be 12” and the neck is thick like you would expect on a typical LP Custom. I have the action on the low E string at the twelfth fret at 2.0mm and at the third fret 1.0mm, and the 19th fret octaves are really good.  I really like this beautiful guitar, and kinda don't want to sell it, however, when I want to play a Les Paul, I tend to pick up my Custom Lite, which weighs 7.8 pounds, a full TWO pounds lighter than the Japanese one, plus the Lite has a belly cut, which is more comfortable. This FANTASTIC Japanese Elite just sits in the Elitist case, which is included in the sale. It is just another vintage guitar in my collection that I don't use as a music tool anymore, so it needs to go.

   This item is sold in AS IS condition. It is from a pet-free non-smoking home. If it is a used guitar it will likely have small dents, scratches, and pick marks. I have attempted to document the physical condition in the photographs and show all items that are included, so please check them carefully.

  If a gig bag or case is not shown in guitar photos or mentioned in the listing, it is not included, but all items will be carefully bubble wrapped, buried in additional packing, and packaged carefully. It may take me up to 3 days to get your item packed and submitted to USPS or UPS. All shipping is to USA 48 states registered addresses only. I will happily answer any questions you may have.

 ALL SALES ARE FINAL.  NO RETURNS, so please be sure you want each item.